London 2012 Olympics: table tennis guide

Read Telegraph Sport's guide to the table tennis event at the London 2012
Olympics.

It's like tennis.....on a table. Except it's not. The principles are
similar but there's a very different scoring system.

As in tennis, players must allow the ball only one bounce on their side of the
court before returning it to their opponent. Points are scored if the
opponent is unable to return the ball, or if they hit the ball ‘out’ of the
court, ie it does not bounce on the table.

Singles matches are played over the best of seven games, with the first player
to 11 (by a margin of two) winning each game. In the Team events, each team
consists of three players, who play four Singles matches and one Doubles
match. Team matches end when one team has won three individual matches in
this best-of-five format.

Both disciplines are run in a knockout format. Players and teams progress
through the draw until the finals, which decide the winners of the gold
medals.

Players’ seedings dictate the round in which they enter the competition. In
Singles, the 16 highest ranked players qualify for the third round, players
ranked from 17 to 32 qualify for the second round, and all other players
qualify for the preliminary or first round. In Team events, a special team
rankings list is used to established the seedings.

Events / disciplines

Men’s singles, women’s singles

Men’s team, women’s team

Gold medals available

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The aim of the game is to keep the ball in play for longer than your
opponent, so relies on tactics similar to those used in tennis.

Players will try and work out their opponents weakness, and then attempt to
exploit it by firing shots at their weak spot. Suddenly changing direction
and moving your opponent around the table can be a good way to get past
their defence.

Varying the spin and speed of the shots can make it more difficult for your
opponent to work out where the ball will land. Attacking shots will normally
have plenty of topspin, while defensive shots put backspin on the ball.

Like tennis, players take in turns to serve, but unlike tennis they hardly
elevate the ball upwards - throws are about six inches high. Whereas in
tennis the ball is struck at its highest point, in table tennis it is hit on
the descent so that it first bounces on the server’s side of the net and
then the opponent's.

Servers often use deceptive spin on their serves to fool their opponents.
Players will aim to use serving motions that look similar so that an
opponent will be unable to tell if the ball is coming at them with lots of
backspin or sidespin, making it hard for them to choose an effective return
shot.

Another effective, but hard to master technique, is the fake serve, where
servers will mimic the serving motion to fool their opponent into thinking
they have served before they actually have. This allows them to create space
on the table and serve to the area their opponent has vacated.

Common playing styles include defensive, where the player will try and outlast
their opponent by forcing them to make mistakes and avoiding any of their
own; offensive, which involves playing aggressively and using plenty of
spin; and power play, where the player will try and win points through the
speed and force of their shots.

It is estimated during a rally the average speed of a ball is 25mph, meaning
that it can travel the length of a table in a quarter of a second. Serves
travel at around 60mphs.

What to say

“I’m definitely a shakehand rather than pen-hold grip man myself.”

What not to say

“Whiff whaff’s coming home.”

If it were a TV programme, it would be

Alas Smith and Jones. Two men facing each other across a table makes for
compelling viewing.

Facts and Phrases

In the six editions of the Games since the sport was introduced to the Olympic
programme at Seoul 1988, China has won more medals than all the other
nations put together.

The country where table tennis is played by 300 million and appears little
short of a religion, has won 41 medals.

To anyone who witnessed China’s clean sweep of all four gold medals in
Beijing, there is absolutely no reason to believe that anything will change
in London. The extraordinary enthusiasm of the Chinese fans may be hard to
replicate in the ExCel but it will be one of the best shows at the Games,
with the quality of fare on offer guaranteed to be as compelling, almost
hypnotic, as ever.

The Chinese domination, according to some doomsayers, is killing the sport,
and the country appears to have accepted that possibility itself by throwing
open its training camps to outsiders for development opportunities,
something once considered unthinkable. Paul Drinkhall, Britain’s best, has
taken advantage of this, training with the best in Beijing, and has seen
enough to recognise their best players remain “almost unstoppable”.

But the Singapore women’s team, who became at Moscow 2010 became the first to
defeat the Chinese in nine editions of the World Championships, have at
least dented the aura of invincibility.

Jargon

Shakehands: style of grip favoured by Western players, so called
because you hold the paddle as if ready to perform a handshakePenhold: grip popular in Asia, so called because you hold the paddle as
if holding a pen.Blade: The flat, rigid part of the racket used for striking the ball.Loop: An attacking shot, often played with plenty of topspin.Let: As well as service lets (similar to Tennis), a let may be called
if play is interrupted – for example, by a ball from another table entering
the playing area. If this happens, the rally is replayed.Time-out: Each player may claim a time-out of up to one minute during
an individual match.

Legend

The first table tennis player to earn the Grand Slam of Olympic Games, World
Championships, and World Cup gold was Jan-Ove Waldner of Sweden in 1992.
Since the turn of the century, both the male and female games have been
dominated by China with multiple Grand Slam holders including Deng Yaping,
Wang Nan and Zhang Yining.

Random fact

If the sport had been on the Olympic stage back in the 1930s, we may have been
looking towards the great Fred Perry, the nation’s finest tennis player in
history, to strike gold. In the early days of his tennis exploits, the young
Perry was much better known as a table tennis maestro - so good, indeed,
that he was able to win the world title at just 19.

Official sites

Aiming high: Paul Drinkhall is one of Team GB's young table tennis hopesPhoto: Craig Stennett

How many medals targeted by Team GB?

Even one would be a major success. Britain have never won an Olympic table
tennis medal since the sport was introduced in the Olympics in 1988.

Where are the chances?

Their chances of a medal are limited due to China’s complete dominance in the
sport.

Brits to watch?

Triple junior European champion and junior world silver medallist Paul
Drinkhall is one of Britain’s best hopes although it is unlikely he will
secure his dream of a medal.

Eighteen-year-old Liam Pitchford is the new talent on the team. He won two
medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. He recently demonstrated his
ability at the European Championships where he beat four players ranked in
the world top 100, including world No 9 Vladimir Samsonov and No 20 Alexey
Smirnov.

Biggest international rivals?

The Chinese still dominate table tennis. Five of the world’s top six male
players are from China and, in the women’s, that ratio is four out of the
top six.